


Could I Breathe Please One Last Time?

by MelodyInTheMist



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Attempted Rape/Non-Con, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-02
Updated: 2014-11-21
Packaged: 2018-02-11 11:41:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 16
Words: 18,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2066802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelodyInTheMist/pseuds/MelodyInTheMist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As Skye lay there, motionless and awaiting the inevitable, she made the decision that if she somehow made it through this, she would find the courage to express her undying love to Jemma Simmons. This is my first fan fiction and it isn't beta tested so sorry for any mistakes and hope you enjoy :) Title from song One Last Time by Jaymes Young.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Begin Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I do not own S.H.I.E.L.D or any of the characters. Thank you for reading and I will try to update daily.

Skye's P.O.V

At first, there was no pain, just numbness. Her world was fraying at the edges and being consumed by darkness, peacefulness and emptiness. As her connection to this world weakened, she simply let it. There was no point in fighting any more, her whole life had been a battle that she was losing and this seemed like a good opportunity to surrender.

But she couldn't give in.

Just as she slipped into her final slumber a thought crossed her otherwise empty mind. It took control of her and gave her the strength she needed to win this war. All she had ever wanted was to be loved for who she was and to find a family which she now realised that she had. The misfit S.H.I.E.L.D. team that she was now a part of was her family and they wouldn't want her to give into this darkness. And, if they truly did love and accept her, she didn't want to hand herself over to the enemy either.

Everything after that was a blur. She could see Coulson, a look of defeat in his eyes as he desperately searched for her pulse, or any other sign that they weren't too late. She saw Simmons, with panic and extreme fear etched onto her face and then her vision faded back to darkness as sharp pains shot through her stomach and spread all through her as she was being lifted into the chamber.

After that nothing she saw made any sense, just blurred colours and flashes of light for what seemed like years. Once the miracle drug had been injected into her bloodstream things started to become more clear. She could feel the sheets beneath her, taking away the sensation of flying away from this world and she could hear the light hum of the bus lulling her deeper into sleep.

The next time she felt reality tugging her back she fully awoke and instantly wished she hadn't because of the unbearable pain that shuddered through her every time she breathed. As her eyelids started to lift the light was so intense that it seemed as though it would blind her. After a few minutes of adjustment she started taking in her surroundings and saw that she was in a hospital bed (which makes sense; considering how she felt right now) and sitting in the chair next to her bed was a figure but she couldn't make out who quite yet. They were gently grasping her hand in between theirs and whispering things that didn't quite reach her ears. She tried to squeeze her hand to a fist to make her consciousness known but she barely had enough energy left to keep her eyes open and as she felt herself slipping away again she heard the words being whispered to her, "I love you." And as she fell back to sleep those three words echoed through her head in the soothing voice that had spoken them.

Jemma's P.O.V

"I'm so sorry Agent Simmons, but if she doesn't wake up by the end of the week then we will have to take her off life support. Fury's orders." Coulson stated with a sorrowful look in his eyes. You can't believe it. You won't believe it. Skye is your whole world, without her on this bus you and Fitz would have resigned within the first month. Then you start to get angry. How can Coulson expect you to take the life out of the person you care about most? "No." It comes out as a growl, you are trying to stay calm but how can you? "You can't do that sir, she is much more stable and aware of what is happening around her now. Taking her off life support wouldn't be putting her out of her misery it would be murder!" You think you are shouting now, but you really can't tell because all you can hear is the ringing in your ears and all you see is red. "Jemma, I don't want to go through with it either but it isn't our choice to make." You hate that tone, it's so condescending and he is clearly trying to calm you down which just makes you more angry. "You can't!" You are screaming now, "If you do then I resign."

After you storm out you find yourself walking to the place you have spent most of the last two months. You have slept in that chair so many nights that it feels more comfortable than a bed ever could. You slam the door as hard as you can and as you sit in the chair next to Skye you can't help the tears that roll down your cheeks and the sobs that tear through your body. You start to speak to her; even though you know it's pointless because she won't be able to hear you. "Please come back Skye. We need you here. I need you here. I don't know what I'd do without you Skye, I-" You stop the words from leaving you lips just in time. Her eyes are open, she is looking you dead in the eye and you feel overjoyed.

Skye's P.O.V

She heard muffled voices invade her dreams. One seemed much more calm than the other and she couldn't help finding the voices familiar. Then the voices stopped abruptly and footsteps could be heard approaching her. There was a big noise, like a door being slammed. For the second time since she had almost left this earth, she awoke only this time instead of the peaceful sound of the bus she could hear crying. As she slowly became aware of what was going on she opened her eyes and saw that she was still in the hospital bed but this time she could see who the girl in the chair was. She simply stared at the girl, she felt like she should reach out to her and comfort her but she can't even imagine how agonising moving would be right now. Even with tears streaming down her face, the girl was beautiful beyond comprehension. And as she tried to remember who the girl was, words started tumbling from the girls mouth in the prettiest voice she had ever heard. The girl clearly knew her but she couldn't remember the girl. Suddenly the girl looked up at her and she could feel her heart skip a beat.


	2. I Want You Here

Skye's P.O.V

"Where am I? What's happ-" She was cut off by her own cries as she tried to sit up but the pain searing through her bones screamed at her to stay still. She curled into a foetal position, clutching her stomach to try and lessen the pain. The girl leaned closer and tried to lay her flat on her back again, being as gentle as possible. Once she felt the weight of hands on her shoulders she squirmed out of their grasp and shot back to the other side of the bed like she had been electrocuted. "I'm sorry, Skye." The girl quickly apologised for making her so afraid. "It's fine." She said through gritted teeth, giving the girl the impression that it clearly wasn't okay but she didn't want to go into it.

As the girl checked her vitals and copied down readings from the machinery surrounding her, she tried to remember what had happened before she had woken up in this bed. She remembered being kidnapped from her van by the men in black suits and asked about her involvement with the Rising Tide, she remembered moving onto the bus and working with S.H.I.E.L.D. to find information on her parents, she remembered meeting with Miles and getting caught by her team but she couldn't remember much after that. "All of my readings say that you are completely fine, it's quite fascinating." The girl told her, taking her away from her thoughts and back to face reality. "What's your name?" She asks, even though she could think of lots of more important things to ask, she felt like she should know this first. "Skye, it's me, it's Jemma. Don't you remember?" The girl (Jemma) said trying to keep the sadness out of her voice."No, I-I can't. Where is my team? And what happened to me?" She asked. "You where shot. We were on a mission and you went in to capture the target before he got away but he shot you twice in the stomach. The team is here though, do you want me to go and get them?" Jemma said slowly, trying to tell her as gently as possible. She simply nodded to Jemma, she wanted to see the team but also needed a minute alone to let this settle in her mind.

Coulson's P.O.V

You didn't want it to come to this. You and Fury had been fighting like cat and dog for over a month now over Skye's fate but you had postponed it for as long as you could. You tried to tell Simmons as calmly as you could but she still had the reaction that you expected. It was the same reaction you had when you first received the order. You need to gather the team in the meeting room and tell them all of what will happen in a few days time but you can't do that until you stop crying. She was like the daughter you never had, she had brought your team together. Without her this group of misfits wouldn't have lasted for more than a couple of months.

"Sir, come quickly. She's woken up!"Simmons exclaimed as she ran into your office, pulling you along by the arm with the rest of your team in tow. You make it to the med-bay in record time and somehow manage to fit the whole team in the small room. "Skye, I've brought your whole team, do you remember any of them?" Simmons asked softly. Skye scanned over all of the new faces in the room and spoke. "Fitz, May, Coulson and Ward." She said weakly, pointing at you all in turn.

She will be okay. After you leave Skye to rest Simmons tells you that she should make a full recovery physically within a few months. You can't help the grin that takes over you face at this news but you also feel sadness in the pit of your stomach for Simmons. She and Skye had become good friends since Skye had joined the team and Simmons had been the first to forgive Skye after the Miles incident but now Skye doesn't remember any of that. She can remember everything and everyone else but Jemma Simmons.


	3. Safe and Sound

Skye's P.O.V

The next two weeks were rather dull. She rested, Jemma came to check on her vitals and how she was feeling and someone from the team would usually keep her company for a while. She was surprised by how much better she felt even just a few days after she had woken up but Coulson explained to her that she had been in a coma for 2 months so she had already had time to heal. Jemma seemed to be trying to keep her distance from her which was odd because Fitz had told her that she and Jemma had become close in the few months that they had been on the team. She wondered why at first but when she looked into Jemmas eyes she saw the discomfort that came with being around Skye and thought that maybe they had been more than friends, or maybe Jemma had hoped that one day they could be.

She was lying in bed with Ward in the chair beside her and a comfortable silence hanging in the air. She still had lots of questions but she didn't know if she was ready for the answers yet. "Ward?" Ward groaned looking up from the field report he was writing, "What is it, Skye?" She decided to start with an easy question rather than jumping in the deep end. "The girl, Jemma. Who is she?" Ward sighed and closed his report, there was no point in trying to focus if she was in a talkative mood. "Like I told you already, she is a level 5 S.H.I.E.L.D. scien-" "No, I mean what is she like?" She cuts him off with. "Why don't you ask her? I'm not that close with her." Ward said, trying to end the conversation so he could get back to his report. She signs and sadly states, "I was." under her breath.

A half hours goes by and she falls back to sleep, dreaming of nights on the bus where they would sit and play bored games or watch movies, but Jemma was never there. Then the dream changed and she could see Jemma, but there was something wrong. Fitz was screaming and crying in the lab and there was Jemma, standing by the cargo hold about to jump out into the air. As Jemma fell into the sky she screamed out her name, trying to run and jump after her but her feet wouldn't move from the ground and she couldn't try to save her, no matter how much she wanted too. She was awoken with a jolt as she felt Ward shaking her shoulders "Skye, it's okay. It was just a dream. SIMMONS! Something's wrong!" She wriggled out of his grasp and relaxed slightly as she saw Jemma barge through the door. "What happened, is she all right?" Jemma questioned Ward. "I-I don't know. She was shouting for you but I think it was just a dream." As Jemma came over to her and felt her forehead with the back of her hand to check for a fever Skye burst into tears and wrapped her arms around the scientists waist. "I thought you were dead, you jumped out of the bus and I couldn't save you." Jemma stiffened at first when her arms wrapped around her but soon relaxed and hugged her back. "It's okay Skye, I'm right here. I won't go anywhere, I promise." Jemma whispered soothingly into her ear.

Once she had run out of tears she leaned back far enough to see Jemmas eyes but still hold onto her. "I'm sorry, I don't know why I dreamed that. It just seemed so real." Jemma and Ward exchanged looks before Ward spoke up, "Actually, it was real. Jemma was infected with an alien virus and jumped out of the plane to save the rest of us from it." Now she was confused. "So, it wasn't a dream, it was a memory?" Jemma quickly answered, "Yes! It was a memory. You remember me." Unable to keep the joy out of her voice. She smiled and embraced the scientist again, it wasn't the best memory to have of her, but at least it was something.

Jemma's P.O.V

You were over the moon when you found out that Skye remembers you, even if it's one of the bad things instead of the nights spent curled up in one of your pods watching movies and talking till you fell asleep. You wish you had told her about your feelings for her before she had her near-death experience. Maybe if you had been more than a friend to her she wouldn't have forgotten you.

You are sitting in the chair next to her, Ward had left about an hour ago and you assume that Skye had fallen asleep at some point since then. You are just starting to fall asleep yourself when Skye turns to look at you and starts to speak. "I can't sleep." She moans and you answer with, "Neither can I." It's a lie but she doesn't need to know that. "Well, no wonder you can't sleep, that chair looks really uncomfortable, you should go to bed." She says, her voice laced with concern. "It's fine, honestly." You protest, not wanting to leave her side. You slip into a comfortable silence for a few minutes until Skye starts moving to the other side of the bed. "What are you doing?" You ask her sceptically. "You can't sleep in that chair, and if you won't go to your own bed then you need to sleep in this one." She says pulling back the sheets and inviting you in. "That's ridiculous Skye, I can't do that!" You can feel the blood rush to your cheeks and hope that she can't see it in the dimly lit room. Skye moves again and squeals out in pain as she clutches her stomach. You rush to her side and try to pry her hands away to make sure she hasn't torn her stitches but as you do she grabs your hand and pulls you closer to her. You loss your balance and fall onto the bed beside her, "Tricked you!" She says, sounding very pleased with herself. "Skye, I thought you were hurt!" You try to sound angry with her but you end up laughing anyway. Skye leans closer and whispers "Goodnight, Jemma" into your ear and you answer with an affirmative hum, already feeling sleepy again.


	4. Gravity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I had to turn the rating up to 'Teen and up' for this chapter just to warn you and I still don't own any of this. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy it!

Jemma's P.O.V

You wake up the next morning intertwined with Skye. You have one arm around her waist and another on her thigh while her hands are on your hip and shoulder. The second you wake up you feel the blush forming on your cheeks and try to untangle yourself from her but the second you start to move her eyes fly wide open and stare into yours. "I'm so sorry about this Skye, we must have done it when we were asleep." You stammer out as your blush grows brighter with each word. You take your hand off of her thigh and start to mumble another apology for good measure. "Jemma, don't apologize." Skye tells you as she takes your hand and puts it back onto her skin, pulling you closer and never breaking eye contact.

You must be dreaming, you think. This is too good to be true. As Skye pulls you impossibly close you see fear in her eyes. "Skye, are you okay with this?" You ask her in a whisper. She shakes her head no but she doesn't pull away. "No, I'm not but I want this Jemma. I can remember now. Everything. And all I want is you." She whispers and you feel her breath on your skin. "Good, because your all I want, too." You say under your breath as you bring your lips closer to hers and press a gentle kiss to them. As you begin to pull away she pulls you closer to her once more, bringing your lips together again and kissing you with a hunger and passion that you mirror. She brings her hands round to the small of your back and you slide your hand further up her thigh and the other into her hair. As your hand travels further up she suddenly pushes you back from her and turns away from you, her breathing fast and her shoulders shaking. "Skye, are you alright?" You ask because you don't know what else to do. She doesn't reply so you reach out and place a hand tentatively on her shoulder, causing her to cower away from your touch. A few minutes pass by in silence as you sit with your arm outstretched and she tries to compose herself.

Skye's P.O.V

"I'm sorry, I just, I can't do this." She sighed as she turns back to Jemma. "It's okay Skye, you don't need to apologise. I shouldn't have-" "No, it's not your fault Jemma." She wants to tell Jemma but she doesn't know how to put it into words. She had always been taught to hide her fears and emotions and now that she needs to admit them, she can't do it. "Then what is it, Skye?" Jemma asked her in an innocent tone. She sighs, this is stupid. She's never told anyone about this before and Jemma barely knows anything about her past. "I can't say, Jemma." Her voice cracked midway through the sentence and her eyes started to swell with tears again. Jemma comes closer to her and gently takes her hand, lacing their fingers together. "Skye, you don't need to be afraid of me. Whatever it is bothering you, I will understand, okay?" She nods to the girl and pulls her closer-but not too close-and wraps her arms around her crying into her shoulder.

They sit like that for what seems like hours until they hear someone coming down the corridor and break apart. May comes through the door, for the second time since she had come out of the coma and nods to acknowledge her existence before turning to Simmons. "Coulson needs you to report to his office." May says with no emotion before turning to leave as fast as she came. "I need to go, are you sure you're okay?" Jemma asked uncertainly. "Yeah, I'm okay. You'd better go see what AC wants." She says trying to sound confident. "I suppose so. I'll come back as soon as I can." Jemma says disappointed by having to go. As she watched Jemma leave she couldn't help the goofy grin that spread across her face. She remembered Jemma, she remembered everything about her and now that she knew the girl felt the same way as she did, she could finally be happy.

When Jemma comes back into the room a few hours later she is asleep again, lying peacefully under the sheets with a faint smile dancing on her lips. The second she hears Jemma move the chair to sit down her eyes shoot open and when they meet the other girls she lets out a breath she didn't know she was holding in. "Sorry, did I wake you?" Jemma asks guiltily. "Yeah but I want to be awake. How did it go with Coulson?" Jemma sighs, "It went okay but he wants you out of this bed by the end of the month, which I told him wasn't happening." She lets out a small chuckle. "But I feel fine Jemma. I don't see why I shouldn't be out of here by the end of the week." She says hopefully. "No way Skye, you are still healing and if you start moving around now you could tear your stitches." Jemma says like it had been a ridiculous thing to suggest. "But I only-" "No." "But what if-" "No, Skye. Forget it." She sighs in defeat, if Jemma doesn't want her out of the bed she'll just have to sneak out. A few minutes pass by in silence. "I'm going to get a cup of tea, do you want anything?" Jemma asked her. "Yeah! Can I have a sandwich? I'm starving." Jemma looks at her suspiciously, "Okay, but stay in the bed." "Yes Doctor Simmons!" She answers with a salute. Jemma leaves but not before giving a warning glance over her shoulder.

The second she hears the door close at the end of the hallway she swings her legs off the side of the bed. As she slowly places her feet on the ground she smiles, she hasn't felt this good in months. She slowly stands and as she does a wave of dizziness washes over her but she ignores it and takes her first step. She stumbles at first but then she manages to take a few steps without stopping. Once she gets to the other end of the room she hears the door to the corridor open and footsteps quickly approaching."Shit." She curses under her breath. She tries to pick up speed as she makes her way back to the bed but her legs give way. "Aahhh!" She screams as she falls, hitting her head off the heart rate monitor and then crashing onto the floor. Jemma comes rushing into the room and drops the plate and mug in her hands, both of them smashing on the floor and pieces of ceramic flying everywhere. "Skye!" Jemma panics and rushes towards her. That's the last thing she sees before her world fades back into darkness.


	5. Fix You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This chapter contains blood and vomiting as a warning for anybody who can't handle that sort of stuff. I don't own anything, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy it.

Jemma's P.O.V

As you walk down the corridor to Skye's room you hear her screaming. You break into a sprint and rush into the room where she is lying on the ground with blood oozing from her head and you drop everything in your hands as you scramble to her side. "Skye, can you hear me? Keep your eyes open Skye, stay with me!" Her eyes slowly close and you feel her body go limp in your arms. "Fitz? Ward? Anyone?!" You shout for help and Fitz comes rushing into the room. "Simmons, what happened?" He says as he barges into the room. "I-I don't know. She must of fallen over, don't just stand there Fitz, help me!"

Skye's P.O.V

She woke up the next day and groaned. "Why does my head hurt, and why is it so bright in here?" As her eyes adjusted to the light she saw Jemma, looking down at her with a scowl. "I told you to stay in bed Skye, but you didn't listen." If looks could kill, she would be dead five times over. "I'm so, so sorry Jemma. I will never not listen to you again, I promise." The look in Jemmas eyes softens and is partially replaced with concern. "Are you feeling alright? You hit your head pretty badly." She sighs and reaches up to shade her eyes from the light. "I'm okay but can you turn the light off? It's giving me a headache." Jemma get up to turn off the light and whispers to herself, "Whose fault is that?" She feels guilty for worrying Jemma again, even though she hadn't meant to. She tried to sit up but got really dizzy and nauseous. She turned onto her side and reached for the bin to be sick. As she retched bile into the bucket she felt the bed dip as Jemma crawled over to hold her hair. Once she had finished she turned back to Jemma, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "Done?" Jemma questioned and she nodded in reply.

"Jemma just go to bed, please. I hate you seeing me like this." She pleads with the other girl. She had already thrown up another three times throughout the day and Jemma being there with her just made it worse. Jemma scoffs, "Skye, I've seen you much worse than this, it won't make me think any differently of you." As soon as the words leave her mouth she grimaces, thinking back to when she had almost lost her. "Jemma, I'm not going anywhere." She promises the girl, bringing back her usual smile. "I know Skye, I just can't bear the thought of losing you." Jemma answers honestly. "You will never have to Jemma. Now go to bed, please." She says with a hint of a smile on her face. "Okay, goodnight Skye." "Night Jemma." She notices that as Jemma walks out of the room she picks up the alarm connected to her heart-rate monitor and the emergency button on the bed frame.

Jemma's P.O.V

You can't sleep. What something happens to Skye and she is too ashamed to press the button, or if it runs out of power and you don't find out that something has happened to her until it is too late? Your heart starts to race, what if you're already too late to save her? You jump out of bed and creep through the hallways to the med-bay. What's the point in staying in your pod if you won't be able to sleep anyway? When you get to her room she isn't in the bed and you panic even more. You hear coughing and retching coming from the other side of the bed and rush over to where the sound is coming from. You see Skye, laying on the ground in a pool of her own blood and coughing up even more. You crouch next to her and move her into a sitting position so she is leaning against the bed frame. "Skye what happened to you?" You ask her as tear fall down your cheeks. "Please, just go away." She weakly tells you. You shake your head no and start to look through cupboards and drawers for anything useful. "I don't want you here Jemma, just go." Skye says, her speech broken up by fits of coughing and wheezing. Then, just as you are about to give up hope, you find a breathing tube in one of the cupboards. You lay Skye on her back and straddle her legs to keep her still. "I'm so sorry, Skye." You whisper. "Get out of here Jemma, you can't fix this!" She screams at you as she tries to kick and squirm out of your grasp. You hold her mouth open and try to insert the tube but another wave of blood comes up her throat and you can't see what you are doing. Tears stream down Skye's face and the pained look in her eyes breaks your heart. Once you manage to insert the tube you start to squeeze air in and out of it slowly to steady her breathing. As she starts to relax you climb off of her and sit by her side controlling her breathing. You sit there for hours, staring at her limp body. At some point she had stopped breathing even with you helping her to but you couldn't move from her side. You had kept forcing air into her lungs aimlessly, unable to fix her. You let go of the tube and curl into her side. She's cold, why is she so cold? You ask yourself but you can't remember any more and even if you could, it wouldn't matter. All that matters is that you couldn't fix her. She asked you to leave her to fix it herself but you had forced your help upon her, to the point that she was screaming and crying in protest and then you had killed her. You start to scream at her lifeless corpse to wake up, to say something, to live.


	6. After Afterall

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I would like to apologise for my very limited medical knowledge in the previous chapter and I want to make it clear that this isn't a death-fic, although the last chapter may have made it seems like one. I don't own anything, thank you for continuing to read this and I hope you enjoy it!

Skye's P.O.V

She wakes up from a dreamless sleep to a blood-curdling scream. She sits up and listens to what's happening. The screaming is coming from the other side of her door and it sounds like Jemma. She jumps out of bed but stretches her stomach and ends up in a heap on the floor, clutching her stomach to take away from the intense pain. As she drags herself slowly over to the door she hears another scream of Jemma calling her name. She feels adrenaline rush through her and stands, running over to the door. She barges into the hallway and looks up and down it, unable to see anyone. She hears a cry and looks down to see Jemma, leaning against the wall to her room asleep with tears streaming down her cheeks. She falls to her knees, the adrenaline wearing off and starts to shake the girls shoulders harshly. "No, no, no. Wake up Jemma, please." She says in panic to the other girl, trying to keep herself from crying over Jemma's clear distress. Jemma won't wake up so she continues shaking her shoulders, her grip loosening and her speech getting louder. " It's a dream, okay? I'm right here, Jemma. Wake up!" She shouts the last part, unable to control the emotion in her voice. Jemma suddenly wakes up, curling into a ball and looking up at her, eyes filled with terror. "Skye?" Jemma asks uncertainly, her voice hoarse. "Yeah, it's me Jemma, you were just dreaming." She says softly and Jemma collapses into her arms, a flood of tears falling down her face. She is quick to wrap her arms around Jemma, bundling the girl up in her lap and giving her the comfort and protection she seeks. "I-I thought I could help you but then..." Jemma trails off, her sobs taking over her ability to speak. "Shh, it's okay Jemma I'm here. I'm okay, you're okay. We're okay. She promises the girl she is cradling in her arms.

She sits there for almost half an hour, rocking slowly side to side and whispering soothing things into Jemma's ear as the girl cries relentlessly in her lap. All of a sudden Jemma's eyes are inches away from hers, staring into them as though they are the only thing worth looking at. "Are you okay?" She asks Jemma in a whisper. Jemma nods slowly and sighs, "Yes, thanks to you." She chuckles lightly. "Want to talk about it?" She asks wearily. "Not just now. You need to get back to bed." Jemma says as she climbs off of you lap and helps you to your feet. As she looks over to the bed she sighs, it will be a challenge to make it all that way without adrenaline burning through her bloodstream. Jemma looks over to her with concern, "I can go and fetch Ward if you want, to carry you over." She shakes her head no, that would be too embarrassing. As she takes a small step forward she feels Jemma's arm around her waist to steady her and leans to the side so that Jemma is taking most of her weight. She manages over to the bed and Jemma lifts her up bridal style, lowering her onto the bed softly. "Lie down with me?" She asks hopefully and Jemma slips under the sheets beside her. "So, what was it about?" She feels Jemma tense at the question. "I was trying to sleep in my pod but I was too worried about you so I walked over here. You weren't in the bed, you had fallen out of it and were lying on the ground coughing. There was so much blood, too much of it." Jemma pauses, trying to keep herself from breaking down again. "I tried to save you but I couldn't and I screamed and shouted for you to wake up, but it was too late." She wraps her arms around Jemma's small waist and pulls her close, never waning to let go. "I will never leave you Jemma, I promise." Jemma frowns and traces a pattern across your cheeks, "You can't know that for sure though, it's out of your control." She thinks for a moment before smirking, "Then I will do everything in my control to stop it from happening. Deal?" "Deal." Jemma answers with a smile tugging at her lips before adding, "I will do everything in my power to keep you safe too." The smirk fades from her lips and her expression turns serious. "Only if it isn't dangerous for you. I can't imagine losing you either."

Jemma's P.O.V

You watch as sleep pulls Skye away from the waking world. You know you should try to sleep as well but you worry that you will have another nightmare. Instead, you look over Skye's features. Memorising every individual freckle and pour, wishing the earth would stop spinning and you could stay in this moment forever but you know that won't happen. Life will carry on and take you with it, away from these moments that are too perfect to be described or put into words, only able to be felt. As the sun comes up you watch the shadows dance over Skye's face and curl into her side, letting yourself fall asleep as you listen to her breath and listen to her heartbeat to reassure yourself that she will still be here when you wake up.


	7. Soldier On

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I tried to write in lots of different points of view for this chapter but I'm not sure whether it worked or it was just confusing and they were too similar to one another. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy!

Ward's P.O.V

"Agent Ward, go over to the med-bay and tell Agent Simmons to report to the meeting room, we have a mission." Coulson ordered. "Yes, sir." Ward replied solemnly. As he briskly walked through the bus he sighed inwardly, wishing that they could just land somewhere and take a break until Skye was better. The constant danger on the bus was becoming too much for him to handle and he was certain that the team would figure out his true identity soon. Ward lifted his hand to knock on the door but stopped himself when he looked through the window to Skye's room. He saw Simmons and Skye in the bed, curled up in a tangle of limbs and didn't want to intrude so he crept back along the corridor and slammed the door, taking heavy steps back to the room and coughing loudly, just for good measure. In the corner of his eye he saw the girls spring apart through the window and by the time he had opened the door Jemma was sitting on the chair next to the bed and Skye was lying flat on her back. "Simmons, we have a mission. Agent Coulson wants us to report to the meeting room in..." He pauses and looks around the room for a clock and when he can't find one looks down at his watch. "10 minutes." Skye looks up at him with a sheepish expression. "What type of mission, can I come with you for the briefing?" He sighs and looks over to Simmons who rolls her eyes and shakes her head. "I don't know what type of mission it will be and no, you can't come with us. I'm sure Agent Simmons will tell you all about it when we get back." Ward says in a stern voice, hoping that Skye will do as he says for once. Skye sighs in defeat, "Okay." Ward looks between the two of them as they try to avoid making eye contact with one another. There is a rather awkward silence hanging in the the air so Ward decides to slip out while they are too busy avoiding one another's gaze to object to him leaving. As he walks back down the halls he can hear Skye's light laughter and feels a smile tugging on his lips, happy that he is able to hear her enjoying life after being so sure that she was going to die at Quinn's hand.

Coulson's P.O.V

"S.H.I.E.L.D. have located a Deathlok warehouse and want our team to go in, eliminate the enemy and collect as much data as we can. Agents May, Ward and I will go in and take out the enemy threat. Fitzsimmons, once we have done that you will come in and get all the information you can from that place while Ward plants explosives. Once we are back in the air we will blow the place sky high, any questions?" Silence. "Good, we will be landing in 3 hours so I suggest you go and get ready. Agent Simmons, you stay here." Your team file out of the room, leaving Simmons behind. "Everything alright, sir?" She asks you hesitantly. "How is Skye?" You ask her, avoiding her question. "Well, she is recovering at a rapid pace since we injected her with the GH.325 but she is still very weak, unable to walk without someone's assistance." You stay silent for a minute, mentally preparing yourself to continue the conversation. "Do you think she would be okay with hacking into Deathlok to get us in there? She would be still be staying on the bus and it would be much easier than her having to explain it over the comms to Fitz." Simmons sighs and looks you straight in the eye. "I imagine she would be okay with that sir but I don't like the idea of it, we are already leaving her on the bus by herself. I will be sure to ask her about it when I get back to the med-bay though." You give her a tight lipped smile and thank her as she leaves.

Jemma's P.O.V

When you get back to Skye she sits up eagerly and starts bombarding you with questions, "When is the mission? Do I get do come? Will it be dangerous?" You raise you hand and she stops on cue. "We will be landing in 3 hours, you don't get to come and it will be dangerous but only for May, Coulson and Ward who are all more than capable of handling themselves." Skye listens intently, hanging on to your every word. "You don't get to come with us but if you feel up to it then you could hack into Deathlok to get us into the warehouse undetected." You feel guilty asking this of her when she is still in recovery but judging by the grin plastered on her face she is more than happy to do it. "So I would be left on the bus by myself?" She asks you, the grin on her face vanishing. "Yes, I'm afraid so. You will be fine though, nothing will happen while we are gone." You tell her reassuringly. She slowly nods, "But what if something happens to you guys, what if you are captured by Deathlok?" You thing for a moment before answering, "Then you call Agents Garrett and Triplett on the sat-phone, they'll know what to do."

You and Fitz are in the lab gathering everything you will need for the mission when he starts to talk, "You and Skye have been spending a lot of time together lately." You think for a moment, going over what he has said. "Have we?" You say dismissively. "Once we get back from this mission I will need you with me in the lab. You do know that, don't you?" You look over at Fitz, wondering why he thinks you need to be reminded of that. "Of course, Fitz. This is my job." He turns to you and looks into your eyes, like he can tell exactly what you are thinking just by looking deep enough and nods his head twice before getting back to work. As you continue to pack for the mission you can't help but wonder what Fitz had meant, does he know about you and Skye? You ask yourself and then you start to wonder if there even is a you and Skye. You walk out of the lab and go to the bathroom, splashing water on your face. You look in the mirror and see the bags under your eyes from months of sleepless nights. "Come on Jemma, focus! Just for a few hours." You say to your reflection as you slap your cheeks to bring traces of colour into the porcelain skin. As you wander back through to the lab you will yourself to try and focus on the task at hand, you can work out whatever is going on with Fitz another time.


	8. Gone, Gone, Gone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I am so sorry for not updating yesterday but it was my sisters 18th birthday and by the time I remembered that I needed to write another chapter I was a bit too tipsy to concentrate. This chapter is completely in Skye's point of view and I still don't own anything. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy!

Skye's P.O.V

"I will be fine Skye, there's no need too worry. I won't even be in the building until Agents Coulson, May and Ward have taken out everybody inside." Jemma says trying to reassure her that nothing will go wrong. She felt like a nervous wreck. It was been the first mission that she had been a part of since she had been shot and she worried that something else would go terribly wrong. "I know that you probably will be but just be extra careful, okay? I have a feeling that something bad will happen and I really don't want it to, especially not to you." Jemma sighs and leans over to her so that there faces are mere inches apart. "I promise." Jemma whispers, the warm air making her lips tingle. She really wants to tell Jemma that she loves her, so that if something does go wrong and she doesn't get another chance to tell her, Jemma will know but she is too afraid of rejection. She had never told anybody that she loved them before, not even Miles and with the childhood that she had, she worried that Jemma wouldn't feel the same way, or would think that she is desperate for saying it so early on in the relationship and leave her just like everybody else did. She must have been thinking about it for too long and zoned out because the next thing she knew Jemma was waving a hand infront of her face. "Hello, earth to Skye?" She shakes her head asthough to make the thought fall away from her mind. "Sorry, were you saying something?" Jemma looks at her with concern in her eyes. "Are you alright Skye, you don't need to do this yet you know, Coulson will understand and even if he doesn't he can't force you to do it. You are still in recovery. " She laughs and brings Jemma's lips so close to hers that when she speaks she can feel them brush lightly together. "I'm okay with this, honestly. I was just thinking about something." Jemma looks sceptical but nods her head and continues like nothing happened. "I will see you in a few hours okay? If we aren't back by 3 o'clock and aren't on the comms then phone Garret." She nods in return with and affirmative noise and quickly pecks Jemma on the lips before turning to her laptop and testing the comms.

"There are 26 people in the warehouse. Four guarding the entrance, three on the east wing, five on the west and south wings, two in the security room and seven upstairs." She counts aloud from the thermal scan of the building. "Copy that. Agent Ward will take the east and west wings and Agent Coulson will handle the south wing and the security room. I'll take care of the rest." May states as she sneaks over to the entrance, taking out all four men in under a minute. "Skye, turn off all the security cameras and open the doors." Coulson orders and she manages the door in ten seconds and the cameras in another twenty, sending the live feed to her laptop rather than the warehouses security room, "Done." She exclaims, impressed that she can still hack so quickly even after three months without being able to use her laptop. She watches on her screen as Ward clears the west wing and Coulson takes out the men in the security room, both moving quickly to clear other areas of the building. She watches as May climbs up the outside of the warehouse, launching herself thorough the window and landing on a guard, knocking him out cold with one strike to his face and sees blood start to gush from his nose as May walks away to find her next victim. Suddenly her connection to the security system is lost and her screen goes black. " I've lost visuals, what's happening?" She gets no reply other than static coming out of her earpiece. "Hello, can anybody hear me? I've lost visual contact, is everything alright?" She waits a few minutes listening to static and trying to get a connection back into the security feed. She doesn't get anywhere with the security but she hears a distinctive Scottish accent in her ear after almost 10 minutes, "Hello, what is going on in there? Can anybody hear me? Skye, Coulson, May, Ward?" He says quickly. "Fitz! I've lost access to the security feed and I can't get through to anybody on the comms." It turns back to static for a few seconds before she hears him again. "Skye...what's happ-...no comms either...-an you hear me?" It comes through broken up and after Fitz finishes she is sure that she hears gunshots. "Are you still there? I heard gunshots, what's going on?" She asks in a panic, feeling her heartbeat faster and every second that she doesn't get a reply seems to last forever.

She wait for hours but doesn't hear anything else over the comms and can't get control of the cameras back. She tries to do another thermal scan a few times but it won't work either and as it gets closer to 3pm she starts to consider going after them herself. If she waited for S.H.I.E.L.D. to send in back-up then it could be anywhere from three to nine hours until they got there, depending on how many agents were free and where they were. As she thinks more about it, going after them herself doesn't seem like such a bad idea. She could take the SUV so she didn't need to walk (because walking was not even an option in her state) and if she was closer she would have more chance of getting the thermal scanner to work to see if she would even need back-up. At 2:45pm she started to load everything she needed into the SUV which was her laptop, a night night pistol with plenty of ammo, the thermal scanner and a med-pack. She put on a bulletproof vest and lowered the cargo hold ramp, driving out into the empty countryside. She was scared out of her mind and a big part of her wondered what the hell she was doing. She could barely even walk and she was going out into the unknown all by herself to fight anywhere from one to twenty six men with guns working for the man that had almost killed her a few months before. There was other option though, she had to at least try to save her team from whatever was happening to them. As she drove she couldn't take her mind off of Jemma. The girl who had saved her from death when there was almost no hope, who hadn't spared a single thought for her own well-being until she was sure that she was going to pull through, who had stayed by her bedside for two whole months and most importantly, the girl who she wanted to spend the rest of her life with and to marry and to raise a family with. She realised that she was probably being too optimistic about their relationship and looking way to far into the future but she didn't care. The only way she could muster enough courage to go through with her plan was to think like this.


	9. Angel With a Shotgun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This chapter is completely in Skye's point of view again and I still don't own anything. Thank you for continuing to read this and I hope you enjoy it!

Skye's P.O.V

As she starts to see the warehouse on the horizon she stops the car abruptly, not wanting to be seen by whoever is there with her team. She gets out of the SUV and looks around for any signs of life. She sees a body lying about 25 metres away from the car and makes her way slowly over to it, night night gun in hand. When she gets closer she can see that it is Fitz lying with his arms wrapped around his box of dwarfs. She sits next to him and shakes him, trying to wake him up. "Fitz are you alright? Come one Fitz, wake up!" He stirs and looks straight at Skye with a look of confusion in his eyes. "Skye, why are you out here?" She shakes her head at him, "That's not important. Why isn't Jemma with you? What happened back there?" His expression turns from confusion to worry. "I-I don't know. The comms went offline and then the guards came outside and starting shooting at us, Simmons told me to run so I grabbed the dwarfs and ran as fast as I could. I wanted her to come with me but she said that I needed to get back to the bus and help you sort this out. She was going to distract them long enough for me to get away but I must have fallen and passed out." She wanted to scream at him for letting Jemma stay there with men who wouldn't hesitate to put a bullet through her brain but she couldn't have a meltdown quite yet. She needed to stay focused on getting the team back and figure out a way to get them out of that building without it being a suicide mission. "We need to get back to the SUV, I brought the thermal scanner with me and another night night pistol. We have to get them out of there." Fitz nods and gets to his feet, holding his arm out to help her up. "Are you okay to walk back to the SUV or do you need a hand?" She takes his hand and he pulls her up, taking most of her weight. "Don't worry about me, I can walk. Hurry!" She tells him because even though she needs the help, she doesn't like to rely on other people to get by.

"There are only seven people in there. One is guarding, two are patrolling the hallways and the other four are all in the security room. That must be where they are." She tells Fitz as she hands him the other pistol. "Are you ready to do this?" He retracts his hand and gives her a look of disbelief. "Are you serious? You can barely walk and I'm not even cleared for field work Skye! We need to call in for back up." She looks at him sternly, "Fitz don't worry. It won't turn out the same as last time, I promise. We don't have time to wait for back up, there is no choice." He sighs, putting his head in his hands. "I guess you're right. Okay, I'm ready." She drives up to gates and gets out of the car, shooting the guard on the door in the chest. They run through the door and Skye collapses onto the floor in pain. "Skye, what's wrong?" Fitz asks her as he looks up and down the corridor for any other enemies. "I can't do it, Fitz. Every step is like another shot to the stomach." He kneels beside her and put an arm around her waist, pulling her up so that he is taking almost all of her weight. "Well I can't do it without you so here." He passes her the other pistol. "If I am helping you to walk then I can't shoot so I will take you with me through the building and you will do the shooting. Deal?" She nods and they start to move down the halls as quietly as possible. The first patrol they come across is facing away from them and she shoots him in the back, knocking him out cold. The next one hears them coming and starts to shout at them, "Who's there? Tell me or I'll shoot!" She and Fitz exchange looks and he jumps into the hall so the man can see him. While the man has his gun trained on Fitz, Skye leans around the corner and takes two shots in his general direction but misses both times, As the man's attention turns to her she tries again and this time she shoots him in the forehead and he falls onto his back unconscious. Fitz has to practically drag her to the room with the last four people in it and then leaves her side, takes one of the night guns and moves to open the door. He holds up three fingers and counts down, opening the door as wide as he can.

She looks into the room and sees Coulson, May and Ward all sitting on the ground with ropes and tape binding them to pipes on the walls and covering there mouths. Skye feels the panic start to sear through her bones. She wonders why Jemma isn't there and realises that they must have killed her already or taken her somewhere else to be tortured for information. "Where is Jemma?" She asks them but then she remembers that there were four people in this room on the thermal scanner. But it was too late. The last Deathlok worker comes out from behind the door with a wicked grin on his face and hold up a gun, shooting her in the ribs. Thought of Jemma come into her mind and she thinks about how idiotic she had been that morning. I love you, they were such simple words but she had been to scared to say them and now it looked like she would never get the chance to say them to Jemma. She looks down at her shirt but instead of the familiar red of blood pouring from her torso all she sees is blue. She feels a wave of relief come over her, it was just a night night gun and she would wake up in a few hours. In her last few seconds of consciousness she watches as Fitz steps into the room and shoots the last man in the head.


	10. Come Back, Be Here

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This chapter is a lot longer than usual because I didn't upload yesterday. I feel like I should put a warning about the last paragraph of this chapter because I think it should be rated Mature but as the rest of the story will only be rated Teens and Up, I didn't feel the need to label the whole story as Mature so if you don't feel comfortable reading that sort of thing then you have been warned. Thank you for continuing to read this and I hope you enjoy it. I still don't own anything.

Skye's P.O.V

When she wakes up she is lying on the hard floor of the SUV and sits up quickly, ignoring the spike of pain that runs up her spine as she does so. In the front seats she can see May driving and Coulson in the passenger seat and in the back row she sees Ward and Fitz with their legs curled up uncomfortable, trying not to kick her. "Where are we going, why isn't Simmons here?" She asks nobody in particular as she remembers what happened before she was knocked out. Coulson turns to look at her with disapproval and disappointment in his eyes, the kind of look a man would give his teenage daughter if she came back after her curfew."We are going back to the bus and then you will report to my office immediately." She frowns, slightly annoyed that he had ignored her second question. "Okay, but where is Simmons?" He sighs but still refuses to tell her. Now she is really annoyed, "Well, if you won't tell me then Fitz will. Fitz, please tell me where Simmons is." Fitz shakes his head and looks down at his feet, "Please be quiet, Skye." He tells you softly. She shouts, "No! I am a member of her team and therefore have the right to know if she is safe." May slams her foot on the breaks causing you to hit your head off of Ward's steel-toed boot. "Simmons has been captured by Deathlok. And you having a tantrum will not help her, so I suggest you calm down. Now." May says sternly through gritted teeth. She takes a deep breath, May was right. If she wanted to help Jemma she had to keep herself calm. "Sorry Agent May, your right. Do we have any idea where they have taken her?" Ward turns to look at you, "No, we are going to contact HQ when we get back to the bus to help us look for her and you and Fitz will look over satellite images within a 50 kilometre radius of the warehouse." She slightly nods at his words gratefully.

As May drives up the cargo hold ramp and parks, she mentally prepares herself for going into Coulson's office. He is the angriest that she has ever seen him, ten times worse than when she had betrayed S.H.I.E.L.D. and her team for the Rising Tide. He gets out of the SUV and closes the door with all of his strength, making a bang that pops her ears. As she follows him up to his office she can almost feel the blind rage radiating from him and half expects to see smoke blaring from his ears. He sits down heavily in his chair and takes three deep breathes before starting to talk, "Tell me, why did you think that it was a good idea to travel alone to an enemy base when you could barely walk and there could have potentially been twenty-six Deathlok employees all heavily armed against one of you?" She looks him dead in the eye and puts on her most confident expression. "If I had called for back up, they wouldn't have come until three to nine hours later, by which time you could have all been killed or tortured to the point that you gave away classified information that would give them the upper hand against us. It was a completely rational decision, Sir." She hopes that she looks a lot more confident that she feels while telling him this. "It was not a rational decision, Skye! Do you have a death wish, is that it? I thought you wanted information on your parents, if you kill yourself now how will you ever find out anything else about the people who abandoned you and left you to die?" She gasps at his harsh choice of words and tries not to let the tears in her eyes spill over onto her cheeks. "I don't want to die." She whispers so quietly Coulson almost doesn't hear. She pulls down her sleeves so they cover her wrists and lets her gaze drop to the ground beneath her feet. "If I wanted to die, I wouldn't still be here." He notices the tears in her eyes and the way her posture worsens, realising that his comment had hit a raw nerve he stands up and walks over to her. "I'm sorry Skye, I shouldn't have said that. I just care too much about you and the rest of this team, this family, and I couldn't bear it if something were to happen to any of you." She looks up gingerly and pulls him into a hug, with her head against his chest. "Thank you Coulson, you have no idea how much that means to me." He lightly hugs her back and she smiles, overjoyed at the thought of being part of a family. She quickly pulls back and tries to walk to the door, "We need to go and find Simmons." Coulson nods and follows after her as she hobbles slowly out of the room, "Do you need any help?" She sighs, ducking her head with embarrassment and muttering a, "yes" under her breath.

Fitz's P.O.V

You are looking for any S.H.I.E.L.D. satellites pointing in the general area of the warehouse when you hear the swish of the lab doors opening and lift your eyes from the screen to see Skye and Agent Coulson come through the doors together, Coulson with an arm around Skye to stop her from collapsing. "Have you found anything yet, Fitz?" You shake your head no and feel your lips turn to a frown, "Nothing, there were no S.H.I.E.L.D. satellites facing the direction of that warehouse. The closest on was one-hundred miles away, there is next to no chance of finding her with our satellite imaging, Sir." You watch as Coulson thinks and wait for him to come up with something. He comes up blank and both of you turn to Skye, "Well, I guess I could hack into NSA and see if they were looking in the right direction." Coulson processes her idea, running through all of its pros and cons and then he starts to question Skye. "How long would it take you to hack into the NSA?" She shrugs her shoulders and you see a pained expression reach her eyes at the movement. "I've never tried before but I can't imagine that it would be too hard. I would say half an hour maximum." You know that Simmons wouldn't want the team to do something that was strictly against the rules but given the circumstances, you feel like she would have to agree that it had been a good idea when you get her back, "Okay, I'll keep looking through S.H.I.E.L.D. systems while you do that, hopefully some sort of lead will come up. " Skye nods her head to you solemnly and then Coulson gently lowers her onto a stool, placing her laptop down on the table in front of her.

Jemma's P.O.V

You wake up to a severe headache and feel warm liquid trickling down the side of your face; the blood from a nasty gash on your right temple. As you try to sit up you remember everything that happened and sharply inhale, partly for the pain that moving causes you and partly from the realisation of what had happened. You can remember it all so clearly now but you wish it could remain as much of a blur as it was at the time. As you look around you don't see very much, you are in a small room with no windows, one metal door and a light bulb hanging by bare wires and dimly lighting the room. You scramble into the corner that is the darkest and furthest away from the door, scraping the palm of your hands on the gravel beneath you and you start to sob and cry as silently as possible. You don't know how long you had been asleep for, maybe two hours or maybe two days but it doesn't make any difference to you. Your team had been captured: May, Coulson, Ward and possibly Fitz too. There is no way that S.H.I.E.L.D. will find you, Deathlok and the Clairvoyant seem to always be one step ahead of them and you try not to think about the fact that you will probably die in this room. You sit there and watch the door, occasionally seeing the shadows of peoples feet as they walk by and praying that they don't come in. On the thirteenth shadow you head the handle creak under someone's touch and squint as bright light streams into the room and freeze in terror. When the door opens fully you can see the silhouette of the man coming into the room, he has a robotic leg and suit with burnt and scarred flesh on his face and you gulp, hoping that he will be coming to your rescue but when he comes close enough for you to see into his eyes-to see the depth of the anger and hatred illuminating the rest of his features-you bury that hope deep inside of you.

As you sit in the corner you curl up as small as you can and protect your head with your hands having learned from the last time, bracing yourself for the beating that is likely to come but you can feel something sharp digging into your side and suddenly remember the tracker that you have in your pocket. You reach for it as discreetly as possible and turn it on, hoping against hope that Fitz had managed to make it back to the bus safely. When Mike-Deathlok you correct yourself, unwilling to regard to the monster in the room with you as human-is finished with you he marches out of the room, instantly being replaced by another man working for Quinn who slams shut the door and grabs your wrists, dragging you out of the corner and lying you on your back in the middle of the room. He straddles your hips and keeps your wrists above your head, making you completely useless against him no matter how much you struggle. He takes one hand away and grabs a pair of handcuffs from his belt, binding you to a bar on the wall that you hadn't noticed before. He reached for your jeans and pulls them halfway down your thighs, you try to scream but nothing comes out so you close your eyes and try to focus on the feeling of hot tears streaming down your cheeks rather than what is about to happen to you. But then he climbs off of you and backs away, causing you to shoot a weary glance in his direction. He is holding up the tracker and then in one swift motion throws it to the ground and stamps his foot onto it, shattering it into millions of tiny pieces before leaving the room, leaving you handcuffed to the walls with your clothes ripped up and pulled down. You cry because you don't know what else to do, having lost all hope that you could make it out of this place.


	11. Sweater Weather

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This chapter was going to stop after Skye's point of view but I felt like it was too short like that so I added in some of Jemma's point of view and I ended up almost doubling it in length. I don't think the last paragraph is quite bad enough to be rated as Mature but I will warn you anyway. Thank you for the continued support I have gotten while writing this and I hope you enjoy it!

Fitz's P.O.V

It's been thirty-six hours since Simmons was taken and you haven't been able to find any leads on where she could be. You and Skye have been sitting in the lab since you got back from the warehouse but even the NSA didn't have anything useful to you and you don't know how much longer you can manage without sleep. It seems odd to you that Skye is this devoted to finding Simmons, you have known her for years and she is your best friend so clearly you have reason but Skye... she has only known Simmons for a few months-not including when she was unconscious- and up until she woke up, they hadn't spent much time together. Coulson walks through the doors looks at his watch, "You have been looking for over a day now, you need a break. Both of you." He says, aiming the last part at Skye because you both know that she can be extremely stubborn. "But Coulson, we need to find her as quickly as possible. Just give us a few more hours!" You watch as Coulson fights an internal battle, He wants to get Simmons back as quickly as possible but he would also feel bad having Skye work any longer in her current condition. He sighs as he comes to a conclusion, "You go and rest for a few hours and then you can come back okay? Agent Simmons won't be happy if when she comes back you are in a worse state than when she left." You notice the strain in his voice as he tries to hold onto the hope of her coming back in one piece but don't comment on it. "I guess you're right AC. Fitz, will you help me up the stairs please?" You nod your head but as you move to get up, you hear a beep come from the computer and sit back down. "What is it, Agent Fitz?" Skye asks, but you ignore her momentarily, focused on what's has come up on your screen. She walks over to you shakily and looks over your shoulder, "Is that a tracker?" You nod, stuck for words. You can find her, she will be okay. "Where is she, how long will it take to get there?" You snap back into action and look down a the keyboard, typing almost as fast as Skye does. "She is 150 miles away. How fast can we get there, sir?" You ask, bringing up the location on screen. "Send the co-ordinates to May, we will probably be able to get there in fifteen to twenty minutes so I suggest that you go and tell Agent Ward that we have found her and prepare everything you will need for going in to get her."

Skye's P.O.V

"You will stay here, Skye. I need you to clear space in the lab in case she is injured and get her pod ready for her. We don't know what has happened to her in there, so don't push her into saying anything about it or expect her to act like nothing happened to her." She nods, praying to any god that she can think of that Jemma is alright. "I know sir, I will set up the thermal scanner and if there's any trouble in there I'll get back up from S.H.I.E.L.D. this time." Coulson gives her a stern look and walks away in the direction of the cockpit. As she clears one of the lab tables and lays out all of the things that they might need for Jemma she tries not to think about anything but the task at hand. If she lets her thoughts wander then all she will do is worry and imagine all of the worst things that could have happened to Jemma. She doesn't want to think like that though, she wants to be able to think that Jemma will be fine and nothing will have happened to her but unfortunately, she has been exposed to so many bad things from such an early age that her mind isn't innocent enough to think like that. As she makes her way up the spiral stairs carefully she hears somebody walking down them and looks up to see Ward. "Skye, why are you climbing the stairs on your own?" She looks down at her feet, embarrassed at how simply walking up the stairs is too much for her but also secretly happy that Ward is concerned for her, "I'm fine, Ward." He rolls his eyes, it's such a human reaction that she is taken aback. "You just rolled your eyes robot, are you practising being a real boy?" This earns her a chuckle and Ward picks her up carefully to carry her up the stairs. "How are you Skye?" He asks, "I'm okay." He gives her a look that means he wants more of an answer than that. "I'll be better when we get Jemma back and know that she is safe." She hopes that this is enough of an answer but Ward just looks into the distance, not making any effort to continue the conversation. When they get to the top Ward places her down softly but doesn't go back down, just stands in front of her with his hands firmly holding her shoulders and looking longingly into her eyes. "You and Simmons, what's going on between you?" She feels like a deer caught in headlights but tries to play it cool, "I'm not sure I follow..." She gives him a confused look and he sighs, taking his hands away and taking a step back. "Never mind, Skye. Forget I said anything." She wants to know why he had asked her but as he speaks he starts to walk down the stairs and by the time he finishes he is out of earshot so she shrugs it off for the time being and walks to Jemma's pod to get it ready for when she gets back.

Jemma's P.O.V

You hope that the team will come and get you soon, you don't know how much longer you can handle this for. After the man with the handcuffs had left another man had come a few hours later and untied you, leaving some water and stale bread next to you. You had eaten it in two bites and drank the water in one gulp but now you wish that you had savoured it because your throat feels like cardboard for all of the crying you have been doing. You hear voices outside of the door and scramble back into the corner for defence and listen. They are speaking relatively quietly so you only hear snippets of their conversation but you still understand what they are talking about. "She won't give us anything, I don't think Mike will ever get any information from her." You can't make out anything else for a while until one of them practically shouts, "What about the other guy we sent in? He will probably get something out of her sooner or later." They go completely silent for a while and just as you think they must have left you hear them again, "I don't know, it doesn't seem humane to send him in again. Maybe we should keep trying with Mike?" The other voice laughs, a stereotypically evil cackle which makes you cringe. "How is sending in a superhuman to beat on her any more humane? No, Mr Peterson will be sent back to headquarters tomorrow. Tell Quinn to expect him." You lie down on the gravel and curl up, you don't know what to do,you didn't even pass your field test and now you are being held prisoner in an enemy base. Fitz was right, you should have stayed tucked away in your own lab in the hub. But then you would never have met Skye. You sigh, there is no straight answer as to what you should have done. You can usually think of a solution that will make everything turn out perfectly but not this time, not that it really matters because Fitz hasn't made a time machine yet. Although he came pretty close to it at the academy... You shake your head to clean the thoughts from it. You are going off topic, which is expected really because you think you have a concussion and you feel very cold, the scraps of clothing that have remained on your small frame aren't enough in the cold cell that you are in but it isn't likely that Deathlok would give you something else to wear so you just rub your hands together and try to generate a bit of heat.

At some point you fall asleep, the affects of the concussion becoming stronger than your fear at being in this place but after what you assume was only about half an hour you are woken up by someone opening the door and letting in rays of light that worsen your headache. When you open your eyes you see the man from earlier and instantly close them again and curl up in the corner. "Come on, don't make this difficult. You give me the information I want and I let you keep your dignity, simple as that." You try to tell him that you would never give away any information, no matter what he did to you but the words stick in your throat and you are a terrible liar so you just shake your head no. You hear him step closer to you and feel his hands gripping your thighs and pulling you out of the corner. "This is your fault, you know." He whispers into your ear as he climbs on top of you. You try to squirm out of his grasp but it's pointless because he is probably double your weight and has three times your strength. You hear the door open again and a loud bang echos through the small room before the man's body collapses onto yours and you can barely breathe. You hear more footsteps coming over to you and the mans limp body is lifted off of you so you quickly scurry into the corner and hide your face from whoever has come in. You feel a hand on your shoulder and flinch away from the touch but then the person speaks to you, "Jemma? It's me, it's Fitz. We have come to get you, it's okay." You turn to face him and it truly is Leopold Fitz, your best friend in this world. You wrap your arms around him and he hugs you back but lets go too soon for your liking, "Jemma, your freezing!" He says as he takes off his coat and wraps it around your shoulders. "We need to get out of here. Is it okay if Ward carries you?" He asks you softly but you shake your head no, not wanting to be held by anyone but Fitz. "Okay, that's fine Jemma. I'll just help you to walk, is that alright?" You nod to this and he is by your side in an instant, carefully sliding his arm around your lower back and holding you gently but firmly.


	12. Wait

Skye's P.O.V

As she sits on the bus waiting for the team to bring Jemma back she becomes very impatient. Nobody will tell her how Jemma is doing over the comms, they just keep telling her what she needs to do to get everything ready for when they get back. She paces up and down the cargo hold countless times, waiting and waiting until she can't take it any more. She goes back into the lab and sits down to use her laptop. She checks the teams location through the comms and sees that they are only one or two minutes away so she walks back down to the cargo hold and by the time she gets to the bottom of the ramp they are in sight. Jemma is walking , which is a very good sign but she can't see much else because of how dark it is. Ward jogs over to her and starts throwing questions at her, "Have you got everything ready? Are we being followed?" She puts her hand up to his chest to get him to stop, "Slow down, yes I have everything ready. And no, I don't think you were followed but May should get us back into the air as fast as possible just in case." He takes a deep breath and nods, "Okay, I should go and tell her." She makes an affirmative noise and turns back around to go to the lab with Coulson, Ward, Fitz and Simmons on her tail. She is quickly pushed out of the way by Fitz as he makes his way over to the table and helps Jemma up so she is sitting on the edge.

Jemma's P.O.V

"I'm just going to clean your cuts, okay Jemma?" You nod slowly, refusing to lift your gaze from the ground. You flinch from his touch at first and keep having to remind yourself that it is only Fitz and that he would never try to hurt you but it is still hard to stay still. You wish Skye wasn't here for this, now able to understand how she felt when she was sick and you tried to look after her. It's embarrassing for her to see you at your weakest, with Fitz it's different because he is like your brother and you have seen him at his worst as well but Skye... you don't really know her. You would like to get to know her and you do trust her but it just doesn't seem right for her to be here. "Fitz," You start slowly and his instantly stops what he is doing and bends down to look you straight in the eye. "Did I hurt you, Jemma? I'm so sorry. I am trying to be as gentle as possible but-" You shake your head no and whisper to him, so quietly that he has to lean closer to hear you. "Please, tell Skye to go." He gives you a look of pure determination that tells you he would be willing to do just about anything for you and turns to Skye, leaving your side for the first time since he got you back. "Skye, I think it would be for the best if you went back to your pod." You lift your eyes slightly and see how heartbroken she is by this request but she leaves anyway and you watch her climb the stairs, taking them one at a time and moving with great difficulty. When Fitz is finished cleaning and dressing the gash on your forehead he sits next you and you lean your head on his shoulder. You sit like that for a while, neither one of you knowing how to start a conversation and both enjoying the silence. Then Fitz speaks to you softly, his voice breaking through the silence and peace like a beacon in the darkness and bringing your thoughts back from the emptiness they had drifted to, replacing your oblivion with the harsh reality you have to face. "Are there any other cuts or anything like that, Jemma?" You nod your head and slowly unzip the coat, letting it fall from your shoulders to reveal the extent of your physical injuries. As Fitz tends to your wounds-not daring to ask what had happened to you-silent tears stream down your face and seeping into the cuts on your cheeks, the salt making them sting and reminding you of everything that you are trying to forget about and making you cry harder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Sorry that this chapter is so short but I did almost half of what was going to happen in this chapter in chapter 11. I start back at school this week, so I will probably be uploading every second day from now on but I will still try to update daily. I also apologise if this chapter seems a bit off, I wasn't really sure how to write it and therefore it seemed to be more forced than usual. Thank you for reading it and I promise tomorrows chapter will be better!


	13. Looking For You Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This chapter is completely written in Jemma's point of view and hopefully better than the last chapter. I still don't own anything, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy it!

Jemma's P.O.V

For the next week you refuse to tell anybody what had happened to you. The only person you will talk to is Fitz, who you don't want to ever find out about the things that happened to you in there, he is too innocent and childish for such things. You are sitting on the windowsill, looking down through the clouds over fields, towns and oceans and as you pass by all of these beautiful places, you think about taking a parachute and jumping down to wherever you are. Starting a new life with new people and new opportunities and truly leaving the past behind you but you would be too afraid, considering the circumstances you were under when you first sky dived 5 months ago. You would feel guilty as well, without you Fitz would crumble and Skye... for the little that you have heard about her past you know that she had been brought up in the foster system but never gotten a real family to adopt her. Miles was the closest thing she had for family and even he betrayed her but you could not do that to her. She has never been loved or wanted by anyone and all you really want to do is love her. Soft footsteps approach you, taking you from your thoughts and landing you back on the plane. It is Skye, looking down at her sleeves as she gets closer and slowly sitting down next to you with her back against the window, shutting her eyes and breathing deeply. You sit there for a few minutes until Skye gives in to the silence, "Jemma, I know you don't want to talk and that's okay but I just want you to know that the longer you avoid the subject, the harder it is to try and tell somebody about it. Either way it will get better but if you won't talk about it then it will get worse before it gets better, and you will never truly get over it. It will always be in the back of your mind." You process what she has said and look over at her. What is the expression on her face; regret, fear, sadness? You sigh, it would probably be better to tell her but it doesn't seem like the right time or place so you stay silent and after a while Skye walks away.

"What was that all about?" Fitz asks as he comes over with two mugs of tea, placing one on the windowsill and sipping from the other. "Hm?" You hum vaguely. "Skye, what did she want?" You look over to him and shrug slightly, lifting the mug up to your lips and taking a small gulp of the warm beverage. "Simmons, you can't keep ignoring her like this. She is the only reason we found you when we did, you know." You give him a questioning look, pleading with your eyes for him to tell you more. "When you were taken, so were Coulson, May and Ward. They were being held in the warehouse and I was passed out in the middle of nowhere..." He tells you of everything that had happened and it makes you feel even more guilty about trying to push her away. You vow to yourself that when you get the right opportunity, you will tell Skye everything that happened, it's the least you can do for her after everything she did for you. "Please, if you won't tell me, she deserves to know." You nod and let your gaze fall back to the world thousands of feet below you, letting your mind empty and almost effortlessly managing to let everything surrounding you melt away.

You wake up screaming at the top of your lungs from a nightmare and feel a cold sweat trickle down your back as you try to control your breathing. You hear the door to your pod open and scream again before noticing who it is. "It's okay Jemma, it's me, it's Skye." She says carefully as she sits on the edge of your bed and reaches a hand towards you tentatively. You collapse into her warm figure, wrapping your arms around her waist and allowing her to hug you back, only tensing slightly at the touch. She rubs circles on your back and whispers soothingly into your ear until you calm down and pull away for her, lying back in the bed and pulling up the covers to your chin. Skye strokes your hair absent-mindedly while looking down at your tear stained eyes. She leans closer to you and watches you tense up, then she lightly wipes the tears from your eyes and watches you flinch from her touch. She sighs and pulls back from you completely, "Jemma, I know you can't talk yet but, well, I have a feeling I know what happened to you-partially-but I hope I'm wrong and I need to know that what I think happened, didn't. Does that make sense?" You nod your head and take a deep breath before explaining everything that had happened. "Jemma, I'm so sorry. I should have found you faster, I should have-" You place your fingers to her lips to silence her. "It's my fault." She mumbles through your fingers and you give her a stern look, "No, Skye. You can't blame yourself for this." She nods but you can tell that she doesn't believe your words. "I'm sorry too, I shouldn't have blocked you out, acting like you don't matter to me and like everything you have done for me was for nothing." You tell her softly, feeling ashamed of your actions but she shakes her head at your words, "It doesn't matter." You can see the lost look in her eyes, the look you can picture on Skye when she was a child as she was taken away from another foster home and dumped back at the St. Agnes orphanage. In this moment, you decide that you never want to see that look in her eyes again, "Yes it does, Skye. It matters because I care about you, more than I do for anyone else and I don't want to push you away." You look back up at Skye and see that she is more sad than before, her eyes glassy with tears that refuse to fall. "Skye, did I say something wrong?" Skye shakes her head no and a watery smile claims her lips, "That is the first time anybody has said that they care about me and to have it come from you, Jemma, I couldn't be more grateful." You pull Skye down to you and she falls into your arms, squeezing you so tightly you think you might burst. After a few minutes, Skye pulls back and kisses your forehead before resting hers against it. They take a moment to breathe in each others air before Skye makes a confession, "Before you went on the mission, I was going to tell you something but I got scared and backed out. When I found out that you had been kidnapped, I thought I would never get the chance to tell you it." She took a breath and looked deep into your eyes, past your soul and into somewhere much deeper down. "Jemma Simmons, I love you."


	14. Wake Me Up Inside

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So I clearly overestimated my abilities to juggle school, family life, homework and fan fiction which I apologise for profusely. I was also stuck on what do write in this chapter but I think it turned out okay. I will definitely upload every 2-4 days (Sorry for the big gap!) from now on, thank you for continuing to read this and I hope you enjoy it! Also, the title of this chapter is kind of misleading.

Jemma's P.O.V

You wake up at some point during the night again but this time it isn't from a nightmare; at least not your nightmare. Skye is lying next to you, thrashing and squirming in the sheets and mumbling something completely incoherent. You sit up and stretch, trying to wake yourself up a little bit before turning to Skye and shaking her shoulders lightly. The contact seems to make her fight more though, punching her fists wildly in the air and sounding more like she is begging than mumbling. She suddenly jolts wake, sitting up and bashing her head with yours and looking at her surrounding on high alert, eyes filled with terror. When Skye finally notices you, sitting beside her with a pained expression on your face as you rub your forehead to relieve some of the pain you see her shoulders slump as she visibly relaxes and tried to catch her breath. You slowly take both of her hands in yours, giving her your full attention, "Skye, are you alright? You seemed to be having a bad dream." You watch her look at your joined hands, seeming almost shocked at your touch. "I'm sorry, did I wake you up?" Skye replies guiltily in such a quiet voice you have to move your head closer to make out the words. You shake your head slowly, "No, it's fine. Want were you dreaming about, if you don't mind me asking?" Skye slips on of her hands from yours and places it gently over your forehead. "Did I hurt you?" She asks, clearly avoiding your question. "Skye, I'm okay. What about you?" You counter, hoping that she will answer this time. Skye sighs and puts her face in her hands, wiping the sleep from her features as she inches away from you. "It doesn't matter, just go back to sleep." You close the gap between the two of you once again, placing a hand uncertainly on her shoulder to gain her eye contact. "You can tell me, Skye. Anything." Skye tenses and you see fear flash across her face before she regains composure over her emotions, "I know that Jemma but it was nothing, don't worry about it." , You wrap your arms around Skye's small frame, finding that her warm touch soothes you and isn't mistaken for the harsh grips of Deathlok soldiers. "I won't worry this time, but you don't need to be afraid to tell me either." She sinks into the embrace and you both fall slowly back to sleep in each others arms.

Skye's P.O.V

As she feels Jemma fall asleep around her, she lets tears stream silently down her face. Jemma has been through so much hurt in the past few months-from constantly having to save her and bring her back from deaths door to being kidnapped by Deathlok-and she just causes her even more worry and pain. She can't tell Jemma about her past, not now and probably not ever if she wants to keep the girls love. Who would want to be with her if they knew what she had truly done, or what had been done to her? She thought as she wiped the tears from her eyes and tried to snuggle into Jemma and fall back to sleep. She hoped that she could keep her mind from wandering to the nightmares again and fall into a dreamless sleep where she didn't need to endure another trip to her own private hell. Unfortunately, sleep wouldn't come to her because of her irrational fears of her own subconscious. She wasn't sure what do to, she didn't want to move from Jemma's warm touch and risk waking up the girl but she also didn't want to lie in the dark, listening to horrible thoughts crashing around her head. She reached up and placed her hand over Jemma's heart, softly enough not to unsettle the girl yet harshly enough to feel it beating underneath her fingertips. She focused on the undisturbed pattern of the girl wrapped around her's breathing and heartbeat, letting her own chest rise and fall in sync with Jemma's and managing to fall back to sleep, forgetting about everything else that had been happening.

When she wakes up the next morning, Jemma is untangling herself from their current embrace as she yawns and sits up. "Skye! How are you this morning?" She gives a curt nod and turns the conversation onto Jemma. "Fine, how are you holding up?" She watches Jemma struggle for the right words before deciding on a simple, "I'm fine too." She feels her lips turn up slightly, it may be a complete lie but at least Jemma isn't blocking her out anymore, "Good." Jemma smiles and nods in agreement. An awkward silence hangs in the air as Jemma refrains from asking you about you dreams and you try to think of something to say. "Well, we should probably get breakfast." She says after a while and Jemma sighs and grumbles an, "I suppose so." As she moves to get up Jemma puts an arm around her waist and takes her hand to help her. "Jemma, I can do this. You don't need to help me." Jemma gives you a sad smile, "I know, but I want to help you. You completely missed the stage in your recovery of gradually rebuilding muscle when you came to save us and without me on the bus the team seem to have just let you instantly out of the med-bay and allowed you to walk around as much as you like." She scoffs at Jemma's poor choice of words, "It's not like they had much of a choice, Jemma. They needed me to help look for you and even if they didn't, they couldn't spare somebody to come and check on me all the time without proper knowledge of what they were exactly checking." Jemma lets go of her, but still keeps their hands clasped together. "I know, I just wish that..." She looks over as Jemma leaves her words to hang in the air, unfinished and more meant for her own ears. "Anyway, I'm dying for a cup of tea, come on!" She laughs at the girls happy tone, glad to have her back.


	15. Say Something

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I think that the 2-4 day deadline works well for everything happening to me right now so I should be able to keep it up until the end of the fic. I don't own anything mentioned in this chapter or Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. I feel like this chapter is very different to the rest but maybe it's just my mood that is different. Thank you for continuing to read this!

Jemma's P.O.V

When you reach the kitchen area, hand in hand with Skye, Fitz is making a cup of tea and speaks to you over his shoulder. "You should speak to her today, Simmons." He commands in a serious tone and then "Do you want a cup of tea?" In his normal, high-pitched he turns to see you he almost drops his mug and has to do a double-take. "Skye! I-I didn't know you were here." Skye chuckles and you can feel her smirk before you even turn to her, "What's wrong, Fitz? Afraid I'm gonna steal your science twin?" He huffs and turns back to pop the kettle on and you try to muffle your laughter though your hand, not wanting to hurt Fitz's feelings. "Tea would be lovely, thank you." You look at Skye and smile at the traces of a smile still lingering in her eyes, "I did speak to her, and it went well. I think." Skye then turns to you and leans closer, touching a kiss to your cheek. "It went very well, Jemma." Fitz turns abruptly and thrusts the tea towards you, a strange look in his eyes. "Well, I'm happy that you have it worked out." You nod and mumble a word of thanks as he marches out of the room. "That was weird." Skye states before slipping her hand from yours and looking through the cupboards. You stay still, standing in the doorway and thinking. Why is Fitz being so odd about you and Skye? Even before, when she was still in the med-bay he had been this way and now that she was better, he still seemed a bit off about the subject.

"Jemma, are you in there?" Skye says, waving her hand in front of your face. You shriek in fright and place your hands over your heart, feeling it race wildly and make your ribcage tremble. "Skye, what a shock!" Skye looks down at her feet, shifting her weight on them. "Sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you." She mumbles to herself and you shake your head, wiping away your thoughts and giving her your attention, "It's alright. Had you said something?" She looks back up at you and smiles eagerly, nodding her head quickly and briefly. "Yeah! I asked if you want to watch a movie or something? I just thought, we don't have a mission and what is there really to do 30,000 feet in the air..." Skye trails off, raising an eyebrow in question. "That would be great Skye but I have to go down to the lab and help Fitz with some project or other he is working on." Skye sighs, so shallowly that you barely notice. "But, how about tonight?" You ask hopefully, not wanting to miss out completely. She hums sweetly in approval before turning back around to make more toast.

Skye's P.O.V

"Okay, so we've got the whole Star Wars Saga, The Godfather, Pulp Fiction, Inception and a load of other movies on DVD. And anything that I can download from the internet." She says, looking at Jemma expectantly. Jemma shrugs and gives you a quizzical look, "But Fitz lets me use his Netflix account, why can't we just watch something on that instead of you pirating a movie illegally, especially when you work for the government." She giggles lightly and feels herself smirk, "But Jemma, where's the fun in that?" She watches as Jemma mock sighs in defeat. "What about The Lion King?" The girl asks, searching her eyes for an answer before the question has even been said.

That is how she ends up in Jemma's bunk, wrapped between sheets and the aforementioned girl at 2am as the credits roll down her laptop screen. Jemma snuggles into her side as she shuts the lid and shoves the laptop onto a side table. "You okay?" She asks in a small voice, barely loud enough to count as a whisper. "Hmm." Jemma hums lightly, and she feels the vibration run through her chest. "Sleepy?" She asks even more quietly. Jemma nods and she folds her arms around the girls frame, hugging her even closer to her chest. After a few minutes she sighs and lets go, "I guess I should go to my own bed." She says as she sits up. Jemma untangles herself from the sheets and grasps your arm tightly, pure terror in her eyes as she pleads, "Please stay here, Skye. I don't want to have another nightmare." She nods and bundles the smaller girl up in her arms, "Don't worry Jemma. I'll stay as long as you want." Jemma lies down and pulls her down too, so they will be able to fall asleep in the safety of each others arms. "Skye?" Jemma asks, her voice heavy with sleep. "Yeah, Jemma?" Jemma takes a deep breath, "What was your dream about last night?" She tenses up and gulps, trying to summon up the courage to open up. "Umm... It was nothing really. Just something that happened a very long time ago." Jemma stays quiet for a while and she hopes that the girl has fallen asleep until she starts to speak again, "It can't have been nothing, Skye. Not with the way you reacted. Just say something to me, anything. I will never judge you for it." She sighs and Jemma moves away slightly, to lock their eyes in the darkness. "I'd rather not speak about it. I know that you told me about yours and everything that happened when you were missing and I feel terrible for not being able to tell you about this but I don't think I could even if I tried." Tears start to form in her eyes and she tries to blink them back. Stupid emotions, she thinks when Jemma notices the glassy look of her eyes. "It's okay, Skye. I know you'll tell me one day, when the time is right." She nods with Jemma's words and as they snuggle back down to sleep she can't believe how lucky she is to be with the kindest, most considerate and absolutely brilliant person that she has ever met. And will ever meet on this big, mystical planet.


	16. Recovery

Jemma's P.O.V

1 Month Later

"I have the results from your physical examination." You say distractedly as you write down one final note. When you look up Skye's are shining and she has a grin plastered onto her face. "Oh yeah, what do they say?" She asks impatiently, practically bouncing in her chair with eagerness. You sigh, letting the breath out as slowly as possible to tease her. "Although I don't agree with it, you're cleared for field missions." Skye cheers and whoops, shaking her fists wildly in the air. "But..." You start, although Skye doesn't hear you over her own celebrations. "BUT..." She stops dead, like a deer caught in headlights before slowly lowering her arms and making a quiet "Uh oh." You roll your eyes, trying not to laugh at her antics. "Ward also said that you've been training non-stop since I gave you the all clear for that. Should I be worried?" Skye looks relieved that that's all you had to say and shakes her head vigorously. "No, I want to be prepared for whatever Hydra throws at us. Next time I can't rely on some miracle drug to save me. More training means I'm safer, if anything." You nod, but although she makes a good case you're still unsure if it really is necessary for her, or healthy. "Well just don't over do it and other than that try to stay safe." You look her in the eye cautiously, hoping she takes every word to heart. She mock salutes with a lopsided smirk but senses your worry and unease at her going in the field when she looks up and moves her hands to your hips, standing up to bring you closer together. "Don't worry, Jemma. I always look out for myself, it's probably the only perk to being in the foster system." You wrap your arms around her neck and smile sadly, "I know, but what if that isn't enough? The only GH serum that we know to be on this planet is inside of you. If anything happens to you again, that's it. You can only cheat death once." Skye hums distractedly, looking into the distance. "Not in my case." You hear her utter under her breath. "How so?" You ask, tilting your head to the side. You wait for an answer but Skye doesn't come back from her thoughts very quickly. You nudge her shoulder slightly after a few more seconds and she turns to you quickly, her eyes on high alert. "It doesn't matter. So, can I go tell Ward the bed news?" You look at her curiously, taken aback by how fast she had spoken before your mind catches up. "Bad news?" Skye laughs softly and shakes her head slowly, "Well, bad for him because it means he has to train me even more. I am, after all, 'Impossible to teach" She says, raising her eyebrows and making air quotations with her hands as she rolls her eyes. You release a quiet chuckle before realisation washes over you. "Oh! I almost forgot, Agent Coulson wants to see you in his office when I'm done with you." Skye sighs, planting a sweet kiss to your lips before slipping out of your arms, "I best go then...if we're done here?" She turns in the doorway, waiting for an answer. You nod your head, giving her a bright grin as she turns to go.

Skye's P.O.V

The meeting with Coulson went exactly as she had thought it would, more scoldings about risking her life and a very long and boring lecture on S.H.I.E.L.D. protocols for different situations, before he eventually decided to just give her the manual instead because she clearly wasn't paying any attention. As she was about to leave, Coulson called her back and held out a small, polished wooden box. She asked him what it was but he wouldn't tell, all he said was that she was to open it later when she was alone. She gave him her word that she would, figuring that he must be really important judging by the fact that he didn't even crack a smile when she made a joke about it being a bomb.. When she left his office she leant against the wall, turning the box over and over in her hands wondering what it could be. After a few minutes of pondering she shrugged it off, putting it in her pocket and setting off to find Ward and tell him the news.

"It's official, I am allowed back in the field!" She shouts happily as she walks into the training area where Ward is busy using the punching bag. He holds it still when it swings back to his and leans his head against it, signing loudly. "You've got to be kidding me." He whines, a mix of teasing and annoyance in his tone. "Afraid not, robot. It's okay though, AC already gave me the extra precautionary lecture and the field manual. So you don't have to bother doing anything, I just thought I should tell you." She says just as teasingly as she pats him consolingly on the shoulder on her way past. "He gave you a manual? I didn't even know there was one." Ward exclaims matter-of-factly as he lifts his head from the punching bag and unwinds the wrappings from his knuckles. She smirks at him and gives a small chuckle, "well, technically there isn't, it's more of a guide. But the speech about safety and why I should be more careful was very long and tiring, so by the time he got onto the actual protocols I wasn't paying very much attention any more and he just gave me this thing instead." She shrugs, holding the book up for Ward to see. He looks over and shakes his head solemnly, "Skye, you're never going to become an agent if Coulson can't trust you to pay attention." She turns and makes her way noisily up the spiral staircase, shouting to her from over her shoulder on the way up, "You never know, maybe one day I'll be better in the field than you!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hadn't forgotten about this fic, I swear! I had written three more chapters and finished the story but it turns out I hadn't actually uploaded them, and I deleted them from my laptop. But I hadn't been very happy with the ending anyways, so now I am completely changing the rest of the story and it will definitely be more than three chapters until it ends. Sorry about that.


End file.
